| Career (United Kingdom) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Doterel |
| Builder: | Chatham Dockyard |
| Way number: | No 3 slip |
| Laid down: | 13 May 1878 |
| Launched: | 2 March 1880 |
| Sponsored by: | Miss Hunt-Grubbe |
| Commissioned: | 7 December 1880 |
| Fate: | Sunk 26 April 1881 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Doterel-class sloop |
| Tonnage: | 1,137 tons |
| Displacement: | 1,124 tons[1] |
| Length: | 170 ft (52 m) pp |
| Beam: | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Draught: | 15 ft 9 in (4.80 m) |
| Installed power: | 900 ihp (670 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Sail plan: | Barque rigged |
| Speed: | 11 knots (20 km/h) |
| Range: | 1,480 nmi (2,740 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h) from 150 tons of coal |
| Crew: | 155 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Doterel was a Doterel-class sloop launched in 1880. She sank at anchor off Punta Arenas after an explosion on 26 April 1881 with the loss of 143 lives while on her way to join the Pacific Station. Her loss was initially the source of much speculation. Causes considered included an attack by the Fenians, a lost torpedo and a coal gas explosion. It was eventually determined to have been caused by the explosion of a flammable oil-drying compound called "xerotine siccative", which was subsequently withdrawn from use in ships.
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The Doterel class was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby as a development of William Henry White's 1874 Osprey-class sloop. The graceful clipper bow of the Opsreys was replaced by a vertical stem and the engines were more powerful. The hull was of composite construction, with wooden planks over an iron frame.[3] Power was provided by three cylindrical boilers, which supplied steam at 60 pounds per square inch (410 kPa) to a two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine driving a single 13-foot-1-inch (3.99 m) screw. This arrangement produced 900 indicated horsepower (670 kW) and a top speed of 11 knots (20 km/h).[4]
Ships of the class were armed with two 7-inch (90 cwt) muzzle-loading rifled guns on pivoting mounts, and four 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns (two on pivoting mounts, and two broadside). Four machine guns and one light gun completed the weaponry.[4] All the ships of the class were provided with a barque rig,[4] that is, square-rigged foremast and mainmast, and fore-and aft sails only on the mizzen mast.
Doterel would have had a normal complement of 140–150 men,[4] although on the day of her loss she had 155 men on board, despite five having deserted since leaving Sheerness.[5] Some of the supernumeraries may have been bound for ships already on station in the Pacific; certainly, one of the survivors, Engineer Walker, was due to join HMS Garnet.[5]
Doterel was ordered from Chatham Dockyard[6] and laid down on 13 May 1878. She was launched on 2 March 1880 from Number 3 slip, and was named by Miss Hunt-Grubbe, daughter of the captain of Steam Reserves at Chatham.[7] She was commissioned on 7 December 1880.[4]
Sloops such as Doterel were used in the far-flung parts of Britain's maritime empire for constabulary duties. Barnaby, Dotrel's designer, was an enthusiast of heavily-armed but un-armoured frigates, sloops and corvettes, arguing that the Navy's tasks were best accomplished by a number of small, cheap ships.[8] The system of colonial cruisers provided an inexpensive peace-keeping force for the protection of British interests, and gave imperial representatives a supply of sailors, marines and guns to deal with petty tyrants, minor insurrections and banditry.[8][9] Doterel was assigned to the Pacific Station, which included the western coasts of North and South America as well as China and Japan. Under Commander Richard Evans she sailed from Sheerness, Kent on 17 January 1881. Having called at Madeira, St Vincent and Montevideo, she anchored at Punta Arenas on 26 April 1881 at 09:00.[10]
At about 10:15[10] on 26 April while at anchor off Punta Arenas, an explosion occurred in the forward magazine.[3] Eyewitnesses described how objects of every type were thrown high into the air and a huge column of smoke was seen to rise from the ship.[10] The ship sank instantly,[11] and boats of every kind put off from shore, from the missionary schooner Allen Gardiner, from the Chilean schooner San Jose and from the ponton (sic) Kate Kellogg.[10] 143 of the 155 crew members were killed.[6] The captain was one of the few survivors, rescued by one of San Jose's boats, naked from the blast and bleeding from several wounds.[10] The afternoon was spent recovering bodies; only three were recovered whole.[12] The various parts were put into boxes and buried the same afternoon.[10] Reverend Thomas Bridges, a missionary at Ushuaia, presided over the funeral of the sailors killed in the explosion.[6]
Commander Evans, the captain of Doterel telegrammed the Admiralty from Montevideo on 3 May 1881:
'Doterel' totally destroyed and sunk by explosion of fore magazine at Sandy Point,[Note 1] 10 a.m., April 26. Cause unknown, supposed boiler burst and exploded magazine. Twelve survivors, all well, proceeding in Britannia for Liverpool. Stokes (lieutenant) remains Sandy Point, awaiting orders. Have telegraphed Pacific, and Jones.[Note 2] Survivors. Commander Evans, Lieutenant Stokes, Paymaster Colborne, Engineer Walker (of Garnet), Carpenter Baird, Gunner's Mate Pengelly, Quartermaster Trout, Caulker's Mate Ford, Shipwright Walkers, Ordinary Seaman James Smith, Stoker Turner, Marine Summers. Discharged. Inlis (clerk), Miggeridge (sick bay man), Hayes (private), Motton (A.B.). John Ellery (A.B.) deserted. Dead.—Eight officers, 135 men.—Commander Richard Evans, 3 May 1881[5]
The ship's guns, screw and other valuable fittings were salvaged by Garnet and Turquoise.[13] A memorial plaque was placed in the "British section" of Punta Arenas Cemetery in 1936.[6] A marble wall tablet was placed in the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London.[14] The contemporary rules governing pensions allowed the widow or dependent children of the dead men a gratuity equal to a year's pay,[15] although the loss of their property was not compensated.[16]
Initial reports blamed an explosion in the boilers, which then detonated the magazine.[5] This was definitively proven to be false when Garnet found the boilers in perfect condition.[17] Conjecture also suggested the Fenians[Note 3] could have blown up the ship,[19] the explosion could have been caused by a Whitehead torpedo lost by Shah in 1878,[20] or that coal gas from the bunkers might have caused the explosion.[21] An enquiry was held at Portsmouth, which referred the evidence to a scientific committee.[21] In September 1881, inquiries into the explosion determined that it was caused by the detonation of coal gas in the bunkers and that no crew members were at fault.[22]
On 21 November 1881, an explosion occurred in Triumph caused by a drying compound called "xerotine siccative".[Note 4][21][22] A surviving crewmember of Doterel, upon smelling the compound while on board Indus, stated that he had smelled xerotine siccative before the explosion of Doterel.[22] He explained to authorities that a jar of liquid had cracked while being moved below deck.[25] Subsequent investigation revealed that just before the explosion in Doterel, two men were ordered to throw the jar overboard.[22][26] While cleaning the leaking explosive liquid from beneath the forward magazine the men may have broken the rule of not having an open flame below decks.[22][25] The first explosion experienced by the survivors[12] was the explosion of the xerotine siccative, followed shortly after by the explosion of the forward magazine,[26] containing 4 tons and 7 cwt (4,456 kg) of explosives.[13] The use of xerotine siccative was ceased thereafter[27] and a system of ventilation was recommended for all ships of the Royal Navy.[26]
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